• Noisy Nimman
I enjoyed a totally booze free day yesterday!…So was strangely sober when I crawled out of my bed just after midnight, dressed politely, and strolled across to ‘The Box’ passed the twenty to thirty young Thai customers regaling themselves happily outside the alleged wine bar to the live singing maelstrom garden band and found the manageress inside the empty of customers wine bar building. She remembered me from ten days ago and listened politely as I politely but very firmly expressed my opinion – again – on the sleep deficit being caused all around by the raucous band whose powerful loudspeakers project far enough to influence the nightly slumbers of monks in Wat Doi Suthep. I wished her business well but suggested loudspeakers were an unnecessary aid for her small band of customers to enjoy the singing and drums on the pavement of a pleasant residential street gone midnight. I explained how the corridors of my apartment block were vibrating to the sound and sleep was impossible with windows closed. She smiled, said little but promised “I’ll speak with the owner”. The daft farang left to the band blasting out the oldie: ‘YMCA…’ and I was amused thinking I was probably the only person who knew what it really stood for. Personally, I won’t hold my breath. The thunder of Peace returned to Nimman at 12.40 a.m.
‘Thoughtless Park’ and ‘Out of the Box’ have my condo sandwiched and currently are the main culprits. The volume of noise is truly staggeringly awful _ and these are not ancient overly sensitive 60+ year old ears complaining. I’m a foreign guest whose clout is zero in this mafia run city of hopeless social caring enforcement of residents’ wellbeing.
To plagiarise and amend from a famous line – All that it needs for the evil of noise pollution to spread is for all decent quiet Thai citizens to remain silent and do nothing. Mai pen rai….hmmmm.
Love Harry
• Go Woman!
Very refreshing to read the interview with Ajarn Virada [Somsawasdi] on all issues women. Some of her ideas really made me rethink things. I never realised how pervasive inequality between the sexes was in Thai society and am very glad that there are women like Ajarn Virada to enlighten us. Thank you Ajarn.
Sally Border
• Pollution
So, are we going to be strangled in smog again this year? Anything being done about it or shall I book my plane ticket out of town for a few months?
Concerned
• Leaving Lamphun
When I went to Lamphun to live I thought it was great, I loved everything about the place. I was happy, I was married, I had one son from my Thai marriage who I dearly loved. We used to visit Chiang Mai now and again and my wife occasionally visited her family who lived in Mae Rim, but to be honest, we preferred the seclusion of Lamphun. Our little family nestled in the countryside, living the dream with the closest people next to me. Work, golf, furnishing the house, trips to Phuket, my kid, my lovely beautiful wife. Last year I lost my job – international company located on the outskirts of Lamphun. Even though my redundancy package was good the money would not last and I couldn’t get any more work in or around Chiang Mai or Lamphun. I had to stop the monthly payments going to my wife’s family and also get rid of one of the cars. She wasn’t happy. Suddenly she did not love me anymore. ‘No Money, No Honey’ she told me, and she meant it. She now lives with another man, another ‘rich’ farang. She took my son. Now I hate Lamphun…the question I ask myself is, did I ever really like it?
Joe
• Informed Structure
Don’t get me wrong Citylife, I do like the new Nimman stuff, the bars, the cool looking shops, all the great food. But, but, but. But the traffic is untenable, and still, there is no where to walk! I have seen attractive cities all over the world, where business and beauty melds, where citizens and industry live happily together. It is possible. Do we want Chiang Mai to end up as monstrous as Bangkok? Do we have to erect concrete on every bit of available space? Is there not anyone who owns land that thinks about beauty and not just money? Is it possible we build parks, parking lots and walkways, pavements, places to sit and feed the bloody bi…I mean rats? Perhaps birds will come when we get rid of the cars, the waste, the sewer stink and the shrill loud speakers everywhere. If we uglify our city it will have long term negative consequences, but if we build with a conscience, and inform ourselves against the ills of greed and its destructive capacities, then maybe the future can be profitable and beautiful. Do these ‘committees’ and the municipality have anything in mind but making money and bending over for business? If not, then what are you doing?! Bangkok is destroyed, it is – and I have travelled the globe – possibly the ugliest city on planet earth. It’s only selling point is that it sold out, and so is easy to accommodate us, never mind our vice or greed. It is a depiction of squalor and selfishness manifested. And now the Bangkok invasion is happening here. Please don’t let them ruin Chiang Mai. For all my rhetoric and cynicism I do believe we can live in a great city, perhaps Thailand’s first city of art, architecture, culture and…pavements.
Penny